Dangerous Visions. edited by Harlan Ellison. 1967
DANGEROUS VISIONS
RATED 80% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE 3.7 OF 5
33 STORIES : 5 GREAT / 18 GOOD / 7 AVERAGE / 2 POOR / 1 DNF
One of the best known and best selling anthologies of all time. Dangerous Visions is truly the vision of Harlan Ellison and his personality bleeds over every page of the book. Chest pounding prefaces and verbose sycophantic introductions to each story. The Anthology and the “Making of the Anthology” overlap as if there is a rip in the space-time continuum.
Dangerous Visions is also a manifesto of the New Wave. Ellison would tell you that he is publishing the stories that “THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO READ!”
If that sounds like a juvenile who wants to “stick it to the man” that because this is exactly what it is. But that is part of what makes the science fiction community what it is. Everyone wants to spit in the face of Grandpa’s SciFi with their own “better and more daring” version. You can draw a direct line from Dangerous Visions to the Puppy Battles and more modern rants such as George RR Martin Can Fuck Off Into the Sun or Jeannette Ng’s John W Campbell Award Speech.
I’ll stop before I turn this into my own screed. How are they dangerous? And how good were they?
Dangerous? I cannot read this book with 1967 eyes to know how shocking this is. There is so much sex and violence in entertainment in 2024 that there is little that can appear in stories to shock anymore. That said there is a lot of violence, including sexual violence, in this book. Especially in the first half. The back half of the book is milder.
There is a bit of anti-religious bigotry as well. Most of it safely directed at ‘traditional religion’ i.e. christianity.
The only truly ‘dangerous vision’ conceptually is Theodore Sturgeon's excellent “If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?” This and the four other Great stories are absolutely worth reading if you’ve never read them, but the best reason to read this book is to be blasted in the face by the 1960s mind of Harlan Ellison.
Five Stories Make My All-Time Great List:
A Toy for Juliette • (1967) • short story by Robert Bloch
A sadistic future girl tortures people stolen from the past by her time-traveling grandfather. Until he grabs the wrong person and the tables are turned.
The Man Who Went to the Moon - Twice • (1967) • short story by Howard Rodman
A young boy maybe “goes to the moon” when he is trapped in a balloon. Later, as an old man, he tries to capture that fame, but no one cares anymore. Poignant story about how wonders eventually become normalized.
If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister? • (1967) • novella by Theodore Sturgeon
Humanity existed on many charted planets. The main character finds one that isn’t listed and might be a utopia. Then … he finds out why. Sturgeon really “understood the assignment” and wrote a defense of something that is likely to shock even the 21st century reader. I won’t spoil the twist, but this is truly a ‘dangerous vision’ and shows one of the the things that science fiction as thought experiment can do.
Auto-da-Fé • (1967) • short story by Roger Zelazny
What if it was bullfighting, but instead of bulls they were classic cars? I love this wild and intense story.
Aye, and Gomorrah ... • (1967) • short story by Samuel R. Delany
Masterful new wave sexual allegory about neutered spacers and the perverse(?) human who pay to have sex with them.
Dangerous Visions
33 STORIES : 5 GREAT / 18 GOOD / 7 AVERAGE / 2 POOR / 1 DNF
How do I arrive at a rating?
Evensong • (1967) • short story by Lester del Rey
Good. Parable about a being on the run who find himself on the home planet of his pursuers. One of those stories that turns entirely on the revelation in the final words.
Flies • (1967) • short story by Robert Silverberg
Average. A man is reconstructed by aliens and given powers to abuse his fellow human beings - in very juvenile ways.
The Day After the Day the Martians Came • (1967) • short story by Frederik Pohl (variant of The Day the Martians Came)
Good. A quiet between-the-lines story.
Riders of the Purple Wage or the Great Gavage • (1967) • novella by Philip José Farmer? (variant of Riders of the Purple Wage)
DNF. Harlan Ellison loved this, but you probably had to have been there. I found this pretentiously faux-literary and probably best experienced on drugs. Nothing much redeeming here for me.
The Malley System • (1967) • short story by Miriam Allen deFord
Good. A very unpleasant story with brutal on screen abuse and violence. Eventually there is a good sci-fi reason why we are reading this, but while legitimate, wasn’t worth it to me.
A Toy for Juliette • (1967) • short story by Robert Bloch
Great. A sadistic future girl tortures people stolen from the past by her time-traveling grandfather. Until he grabs the wrong person and the tables are turned.
The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World • (1967) • novelette by Harlan Ellison
Average. Scatterbrained and violent without purpose (despite what Ellison’s afterword says) story of Jack the Ripper on the loose in a ‘peaceful’ dystopia. A direct sequel to A Toy for Juliette.
The Night That All Time Broke Out • (1967) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss
Good. An offbeat ‘wacky’ story about a gas that allows people to experience themselves in other times. It leads to obsession and eventually some even bigger problems.
The Man Who Went to the Moon - Twice • (1967) • short story by Howard Rodman
Great. A young boy maybe “goes to the moon” when he is trapped in a balloon. Later, as an old man, he tries to capture that fame, but no one cares anymore. Poignant story about how wonders eventually become normalized.
Faith of Our Fathers • (1967) • novelette by Philip K. Dick
Good. In a future where Communism won and occupies the USA, one man gets access to a drug that allows him to glimpse the true nature of the “Great Leader.” Or maybe something even bigger. Written with Dick’s traditional wit and satirical vibes.
The Jigsaw Man • [Known Space] • (1967) • short story by Larry Niven
Good. A man in prison under a death sentence knows that his organs will be taken and distributed to save others.
Gonna Roll the Bones • (1967) • novelette by Fritz Leiber
Good. An unpleasant man plays dice with death in a hellish casino. A simple concept, but full of beautiful prose. Everyone likes this more that I do, but that’s okay. It’s really good mythological fantasy.
Lord Randy, My Son • (1967) • short story by Joe L. Hensley
Good. The creation of a vengeful messiah. Lots of similarities to “it’s a good life” but harder edged and less coherent. A young boy has superhuman powers and delivers vengeance and suffering for the injustice and cruelty in his world.
Eutopia • (1967) • novelette by Poul Anderson
Average. A researcher in an alternate universe tries to navigate a feudal world. There is plot and counterplot, but none it is compelling. The last scene challenges our perspective that our current ideas of Utopia are any better than this feudal society. A last line twist that would "maybe" have shocked upon release is likely to not even be noticed by modern readers.
Incident in Moderan • [Moderan] • (1967) • short story by David R. Bunch
Good. A war robot is inappropriately thanked for taking the time away from war to let another person bury their son. I admire this story’s ideas more than the actual story. Which I feel about a lot of the Moderan tales.
The Escaping • (1967) • short story by David R. Bunch
Poor. Psychedelic weirdness of fantasies of escape. Meh?
The Doll-House • (1967) • short story by James Cross
Good. Fantasy. A man in a hurry to get rich buys a doll-house with a mini cumean sibyl inside. He feeds her and get prediction on the future but off-course he can’t be happy with small victories and things go bad.
Sex and/or Mr. Morrison • (1967) • short story by Carol Emshwiller
Average. The narrator lusts after an obese man who lives in her building. She sneaks into his room and observes his body. Maybe he is one of the “others?”
Shall the Dust Praise Thee? • (1967) • short story by Damon Knight
Average. A short short where God comes to earth for the End of Days, but humanity is gone, having destroyed itself and blaming God.
If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister? • (1967) • novella by Theodore Sturgeon
Great. Humanity existed on many charted planets. The main character finds one that isn’t listed and might be a utopia. Then … he finds out why. Sturgeon really “understood the assignment” and wrote a defense of something that is likely to shock even the 21st century reader. I won’t spoil the twist, but this is truly a ‘dangerous vision’ and shows one of the the things that science fiction as thought experiment can do.
What Happened to Auguste Clarot? • (1967) • short story by Larry Eisenberg
Average. I think this story of a man trying to find a scientist who has gone missing was supposed to be quite funny or satirical, but other than some witty prose, it didn’t work for me.
Ersatz • (1967) • short story by Henry Slesar
Average. The falseness and ‘ersatz’ nature of a post apocalyptic world. :shrug:
Go, Go, Go, Said the Bird • (1967) • short story by Sonya Dorman
Good. A woman runs, hunted through a post apocalyptic landscape. Memories keep emerging. Moments of her life in the time before.
The Happy Breed • (1967) • short story by John Sladek [as by John T. Sladek]
Good. Machines control every aspect of human life to ensure happiness, leading to the intellectual and personal decline of individuals like James and his friends.
Encounter with a Hick • (1967) • short story by Jonathan Brand
Poor. Bigoted story that paints god/Jesus as a hick creator.
From the Government Printing Office • (1967) • short story by Kris Neville
Good. A child perceives the world as baffling and harsh, dominated by the inexplicable actions of adults. The child struggles to understand adult behavior, feels pressured by the expectations placed upon him, and longs for turning 4.
Land of the Great Horses • [Institute for Impure Science] • (1967) • short story by R. A. Lafferty
Good. The fantastical return of Romani people to their homeland as symbols for the desire of belonging in all people.
The Recognition • (1967) • short story by J. G. Ballard
Good. A small dilapidated circus comes into town at the same time as a more vibrant and larger fair. This circus, however, seems to have some real magic behind it.
Judas • (1967) • short story by John Brunner
Good. In a world where robots have been made into God, one priest tries to bring the faith down.
Test to Destruction • (1967) • novelette by Keith Laumer
Good. A dissident is being horribly tortured by a tyrant at the same time that alien intelligence discovers humanity. As the aliens fuse with the tortured victim and the sci-fi device of torture, they give him incredible power.
Carcinoma Angels • (1967) • short story by Norman Spinrad
Good. The life of a man who can accomplish anything. He achieves great wealth and uses it in an unconventional attempt to defeat his cancer.
Auto-da-Fé • (1967) • short story by Roger Zelazny
Great. What if it was bullfighting, but instead of bulls they were classic cars? I love this wild and intense story.
Aye, and Gomorrah ... • (1967) • short story by Samuel R. Delany
Great. Masterful new wave sexual allegory about neutered spacers and the perverse(?) human who pay to have sex with them.
